So I’ve been a little too familiar with dentists in my life. When I was young, all my baby teeth were perfectly aligned in my mouth, which was great for my child acting career (kidding), but apparently not great for my future dental care.
It turns out that having your teeth beautifully fit in your mouth as a child is an indication that you will have too many teeth for your mouth size as an adult. Super weird.
So I’m familiar with dentists. I’ve had braces twice (yes – you read that right), I’ve had many teeth removed and also have endured oral surgery. So when I choose a dentist, I’ve got some baseline criteria. When I moved to Seattle I thought I had hit the jackpot.
Thanks to the awesome site ZocDoc, I was able to quickly book a dentist that took my insurance and had amazing reviews. When I stepped into their office I could see why. They are located on the 20th floor of a skyscraper that overlooks downtown Seattle – including its many bodies of water and mountain ranges. The entire office is encased in glass and I looked out at my gorgeous city while having my teeth cleaned. Magic.
While I was sitting there the first time I visited, they asked if I wanted a blanket…WHAT?! And not just any blanket. It was huge and fluffy and oh so comforting. I was also offered an iPad so I could listen to music or podcasts during my cleaning. What is this heaven I’ve stumbled into?! On top of all this luxury, the staff was friendly and efficient. I had found my dream dentist!
But of course all good things must end (I’m a serious pessimist if you haven’t noticed….). After using this dentist for almost four years and spending hundreds of dollars with them (on top of the dental insurance I also pay for…) I hit my breaking point. I was told that I had 3 cavities (despite doing everything they told me to, including splurging on an electric toothbrush and fancy floss, but don’t get me started….) and filling those 3 cavities was going to cost SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS more than my insurance was willing to pay. WHAT?!
Yes, I had paid several hundred dollars to this office before in smaller installments, but this was a giant chunk all at once. It broke me out of my fuzzy blanket, iPad music induced haze. I’m not paying the cost of a roundtrip flight to Singapore to fill teeth you told me would be taken care of if I followed your instructions (which I did – to the letter #nerdalert). Nope – not happening. Good try grifter! You got a couple hundred of my bucks, but you will get no more.
So I shopped around. I explored every option to discover how I could get the same treatment and care for less. After going through that experience and exploring for several months here are the tips I have learned.
1. Trust No One
The dentist I had was indeed wonderful. Everyone was kind, their care seemed on point and obviously their amenities were baller, but in the end I discovered how they get the money for those awesome perks…my wallet. I was blinded by their luxuries and didn’t realize when they were reaching unnecessarily into my pocket (I should have known after they charged me $40 for something they claimed to be covered fully by insurance…). I was blinded by their splendor and gave my money to them unnecessarily for that reason for years. Don’t make my mistake.
2. Shop Around
After receiving this cavity news, I started exploring all of my options including seeing if what they quoted me was a normal price or an inflated one. I also looked into if getting these cavities filled in another country would be cheaper (even without medical insurance). Yay medical tourism! In the end, I accepted a referral from my partner to his dentist who was literally down our street (instead of the hour bus ride I would usually take both ways).
His dentist’s office instantly got on my good side simply because they did not seem at all annoyed by my ‘insistent questions’. At my old dentist I would ask before a treatment “How much will that cost?” and they would usually tell me “Oh it’s covered by your insurance” though I often discovered upon leaving that was not the case….
This new place listened to my questions with understanding and concern. In fact the receptionist went so far as to turn his entire desktop computer around to show me how my insurance charged for each treatment. In the end, we discovered that not only did my old dentist point out perfectly healthy teeth for a cavity filling, but with the EXACT SAME insurance filling 3 cavities actually costs $100, not $700. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Needless to say I immediately went to this new dentist. They even went as far as to offer a ‘pre-quote’ (which I didn’t know existed)! Basically they pretend to charge the insurance company to see what kind of monetary demand they come back with. It double checks the insurance math they agreed to. It was awesome. So I shopped around and without much work at all saved $600.
3. Be Open To Alternative Solutions
As I mentioned, I explored all my options including medical tourism. I had trips coming up to Costa Rica (pictured above) and Mexico, both places I had heard were great for expat dental care. There are a few great websites that recommend specific doctors/dentists and offices for American medical tourism and I perused them to see how that option would measure up to my options in the States. This time it wasn’t worth it since I was able to save 85% by just going to another dentist, but that exploration made me even more confident in my plan to use medical tourism when possible to combat healthcare costs in early retirement.
Have you ever found an alternative solution for healthcare? If so, what happened?
i went to a crappy dentist for a few years. i never should have left the previous one but i did. then the head dentist left my new place and they lied to me and said he would be back and meanwhile i was getting this awful work done. full disclosure: i have really awful teeth and that is mostly self-inflicted by lifestyle. it’s a shame how carefully you have to watch these weasels.
Oh no! I’m sorry they lied to you – what the heck?! What made you finally leave them? And yeah it’s crazy how much care teeth can need. Some of my friends barely care for them and have never had a cavity and then here I am on the other end of the spectrum.
i found out the main dentist whom i liked wasn’t coming back and never had an injured back….and i couldn’t stand the hygenist. the former one was awesome and we would just chat about rescue dogs and life. the bait and switch one was young and impish and asked me things like “maybe you could drink a little less red wine? or blah, blah, blah” like i was 12 years old.
Ugh that sucks. Does red wine stain teeth? I had only heard that with coffee. Fascinating. Maybe I’ll start hearing that comment soon
This is crazy and makes me so mad, but then happy that you saved so much money! Good on you for shopping around! I’ve been binge reading your blog and loving everything. I enjoy your candor and perspective! 🙂
Yeah I wasn’t too happy at the time, but was glad to discover there are other options out there. So glad you’re enjoying the blog!! That’s really nice to hear.
Braces twice? Yikes! I think this is the post where I have come to understand your die-hard nature. When you are interested in saving money, you mean business!
We’ve been talking a lot about teeth today (trying to choose who has the best dental plan to add our boy to). Also, just learned my husband had to pay $47 for his dentist appointment (even with insurance). He is booked for another 6 month appt. and I said, “No! Once a year for you!”
Hahaha yeeeah I’m a little obsessed when I put my mind to something. $47 for a cleaning even with insurance?! That stinks – I’m sorry. When I was growing up we were told to get a cleaning once a year…now it’s increasing to 3. I smell something fishy!
Wow. Three cavities for healthy teeth and charging you $700 for it. Sounds like we had the same dentist.
I had something similar happen to me. After doing everything they told me for over six months, my teeth and gums somehow got much worse and I required surgery that would cost at least $1500. I got an appointment at the different dentist and nothing was wrong. No surgery needed.
Oh no! That dentist sounds terrible – I’m so sorry! $1500 AND surgery that wasn’t even needed?! Absolutely horrible. I’m so glad you check with another dentist before believing them. Ugh – I’m curious if some dentists are actually crooks or teeth or really subjective (as in if they need treatment)…my gut is telling me the former for some reason. I need to find some dentists to weigh in on this.
Yeah. I am thinking some of it is subjective. At the same time, after that happened I learned that a good amount of people had similar experiences there. Big chain too. Made me sad to learn.
I went in for my cleaning last week thinking that all was good because I do EVERYTHING they tell me to do. Not so much. Three different dentists came in to look at my teeth and gave three different opinions that ranged from I have decay around a crown to I have serious gum disease. Oh and something about surgery. WTF?
Ugh I’m so sorry! What in the world is with dentist opinions? I really need to find a few to interview. That’s too wide a range of opinion for me to be comfortable with one diagnosis. What did you end up doing?
I totally hear you about the expense of dental care! I have the equivalent of a Lexus in my mouth, since I have had 5 implants done — that’s 3 surgeries, 5 implants, and 5 crowns. I have already spent tens of thousands. But even routine care can get expensive (I live in NYC) and so I am about 3 months overdue for my biannual cleaning b/c I’m just not crazy about my options. Our next trip to Costa Rica is in November, and I plan to explore options there — I have also heard great things about dental care there.
Oh my goodness I both love and hate this car in mouth analogy – it’s awesome, but I don’t want to calculate what kind of high end car is in my mouth…uh oh…
And that’s A LOT of work – woah! I’m sorry you had to go through all that. Ugh silly teeth. I hear you on NYC dental care – I rarely went when I lived there and was broke (dumb I know). Let me know how you find dental in Costa Rica! I obviously didn’t end up using it, but I LOVED the country and am definitely going back and can tag it as a dental care option depending on what you think!
Dentist yuk!!! I went to a dentist once after having pain when I ate on my rear teeth. I was told the tooth causing the pain needed a crown which cost $1300. My insurance would only cover $700 at that time is what they told me. So they recommended I apply for a care credit card to cover the remainder to which I did and was approved for a grand. So long story short, trying everything to not owe them anything later I paid cash for my last cleaning with them $120. Two months later I receive a bill for $480. They say my insurance wouldnt cover this amount. Now I’m pissed and not going back. I Can’t trust them.
Oh no!! That’s messed up. I’m sorry that happened to you! Totally don’t go back – they’ve proven they’re untrustworthy. Ugh hearing all these stories is making me realize untrustworthy dentists are more widespread than I thought unfortunately. Thank you for stopping by!
I’ve always had good dental coverage for myself and my husband and three kids when they were younger. I never paid a cent out of pocket for me or my husband. However my kids went to a pediatric dentist and although she accepted my insurance, I always owed more. Turns out she was giving all three kids fluoride treatments at every visit. Insurance had stopped covering after a certain age. She also would charge me the difference between what she billed and what the coverage paid. When I asked her about it, she really took the offensive. She said she deserved to be paid more because of her extensive training. By then the Kids were teenagers and I switched them to my dental group. But I paid a lot out of pocket for a long time X 3 kids!
What in the world?! I’m so sorry that happened to you. And that she got offended – that’s not professional at all (though neither is giving treatments you didn’t ask for to up the bill…) I’m glad you realized what was happening and got out of there. What a swindler ugh!